Icy warning

In the growing litany of scare stories about global warming, one of the most sobering came yesterday from the British Antarctic Survey.

In the growing litany of scare stories about global warming, one of the most sobering came yesterday from the British Antarctic Survey. According to the survey's latest findings, the West Antarctic ice sheet, for decades assumed to be stable, may be beginning to disintegrate, threatening a catastrophic rise in sea levels this century. Of course, the scientists cannot be absolutely certain that the signs of melting they now see are not an aberration. But if the Government can say it had to act on the slimmest of evidence of WMD, how much less reason for delaying action now against the far more serious potential threat of global warming.